Giugiaro’s electric future

Giugiaro – king of the show-stealing concept car – is back with the Sibylla. And, whisper it, there’s a steering wheel!

GIORGETTO GIUGIARO IS BACK. Not with a bang, but with a silent waft into view with a new concept car. Hot off the Moncalieri drawing board, this vision of future mobility is the Italian stylist’s peek into the 2020s, named Sibylla.

Sibylla is an all-electric, sporty, four-door, four-seat electric concept car that’s more than five metres long – about the same as an Audi Q7 – but only as tall as a 5-series. In classic Giugiaro form, it’s almost wedge-like in its profile.

It’s a saloon – something that Giugiaro wanted to pen, despite current SUV-led trends. ‘Now that the market is pervaded by this form of architecture [the SUV], I would like to continue to provoke, by returning to the classic theme of elegance with the addition of some very innovative solutions,’ he says.

The domed front windscreen slides forward from the central Targa-like beam overhead, and uses photosensitive glass to dim out harsh sunlight. Those sharp black creases in the bonnet allow the mechanism to bring the windscreen forward.

Why call it Sibylla? Latin mythology says it was a figure endowed with the ability to provide answers and predict the future, but Giugiaro’s mother’s name was Maria Sibilla.

Inside, there’s still a steering wheel – Giorgetto ‘couldn’t bring himself’ to get rid of it – and a smart interface.

The concept uses an Internet of Things ecosystem named EnOS from tech giant Envision. The all-electric Sibylla integrates into the grid when it’s charging. Envision and Giugiaro say that the 75kWh battery-equipped EV can contribute to the grid, becoming an ‘intelligent green powerplant’. The EnOS system also refers back to that all-knowing, answerproviding figure from mythology.

At once comfortingly trad and admirably progressive, clearly the magic’s still there for the Double G.